Where do we go from here?

[Chieftess]

We've conquered Russia, and we just conquered Babylon.

Landmass before the wars - 56,300
Landmass after the wars - 90,600

We've essentially increased our territory by 67%. We also have an ROP with India that will last 9 more turns. Persia is at war once again with the Zulus, and are making slow, but steady gains. Our rail net is also slowly coming into focus. Our Golden Age is over, and we're running a deficit.

So, what's next? Here's several options -

1 - On turn 9, cancel the Indian ROP, and attack them.
2 - Focus on our Infrastructure, and continue building defense, commerce, and/or science/culture.
3. Attack Germany.
4. Attack England, Greece, or Egypt.
5. Be very bold and attack Persia (Sarevok's suggestion).

I think we should concentrate on building up our captured cities (build workers from those cities, since our workers are busy with the railnet). Give them some culture, max them to size 12, and clear the jungle. We also need to keep building muskets.

There is one thing that I'm concerned about, and that's a Persian-Aztec Super-continent. We're first in land now, but Persia's only going to be gaining more land. This begs the question. Do we still want to conquer other civs soon? Especially India, and Germany before they get their UU online. I think we can get one or two more wars in with our cavs before we have to use rifles (or infantry) and artillery. Greece is only half-way through the middle ages right now, but Egypt is industrious (and doesn't have steam). England is as advanced as Greece right now.

India doesn't have Physics and Metallurgy, but they're getting close to cavs. Germany is 1 tech ahead of India.

 

[Rik Meleet]

I am a bit fed up with warring. Let's have about 20 turns of rebuilding our nation. We need banks, libraries and univercities. And also factories soon.

** Rik Meleet is suffering from War Weariness **
All we are saying is: "Give peace a chance"

 

[tao]

Yes. Universities. I posted about it with concrete suggestions here.

 

[Paalikles]

from the top of my head right now:

I agree on the proposed "focus -points" here - mainly working the rail, more defensive forces and some development to stabilize new lands.

germany should be a future foe, and india absorbed into the enligtened empire.

(if there is any difficult words here - there may be a good reason: - English is my second language, spelling errors may follow.)

edit: deficit spending is not feasible in the long run (Keynesian policies are mostly short-run policies ) - for that there are two pocibilities: 1 - reduce governmental spending, or 2 - focus on builds that will strenghten the economy in the long run.

 

[Sarevok]

I think it is now time for industrialization. We should build up our railways and get some culture flowing in our recently taken cities to fill the gaps too small or unsuited to put new cities in. We ought to get a general industrialization done and then we can go kill other civs. My suggestion being first Germany, then India. These military plans however, ought to come after we have a rail network connecting most of our cities.

 

[Chieftess]

Here's a look at the culture situation (using a pixel by pixel line measurement).

@Rik - That's Cyc's and donsig's line!

Anyway, this means that border towns like Nea Roma, Wyfurd, Regent Town, New Gondolin, and City of the Damned need culture ASAP.

EDIT: I love how Germany is connecting a source of coal for us by Anwerp.

And a question for Boots - What did you see as you travelled through Indian lands?

 

[Bootstoots]

I saw a few war elephants, some fortified on mountains, plus cities defended by muskets and spears. Nothing unexpected though.

 

[Bootstoots]

I also think that we should have a period of peace, maybe twenty turns or so. After that, we should take out Germany and India. I don't see the point in a Persian conquest; as long as we control our continent and keep them off our shores, we should be fine.

They may pose a problem if they decide to go for space race later though.

 

[Chieftess]

It seems Persia loves space races and late-game culture. I think that, at some point, we *WILL* have to control our continent and surrounding islands just to keep up. We are slightly ahead of Persia in terms of side, but the AI gets an advantage on Monarchy, so we're pretty much equeal. They're threatening to run away with the game.

Boots - you could scout the Aztec/Persian lands to get info on what units they have.

 

[Sarevok]

that is a good option.